If you and your estranged spouse are leading separate lives in separate homes, you might be thinking of filing your taxes that way, too. Most married couples residing together under the same roof would see fit to file their income taxes on one joint return. A number of couples have sought the alternative, which is

With no one hitting all winning numbers in Saturday night’s Powerball drawing, the top prize has jumped above the half-billion-dollar mark. Now at a whopping $550 million for Wednesday night’s drawing, the jackpot has been growing for more than two months of twice-weekly drawings. And while the odds are stacked against players winning it —

The IRS is sitting on $1.4 billion in unclaimed tax refunds, and taxpayers are running out of time to grab their cash. These tax refunds are from 2015, and they belong to about 1.2 million taxpayers who didn’t file a return that year, according to the IRS. In order to claim the money, taxpayers must

Jason Edwards, a communications professor at Bridgewater State University in Massachusetts, learned seven years too late that he didn’t qualify for public service loan forgiveness. The Providence, Rhode Island, resident had been paying his debt for that long when the dreadful discovery arrived. Yet Edwards’ story holds a rare, happy ending. Stay tuned. The public

Congressional Democrats have been talking about providing an extension to the April 15 deadline for filing your tax return. The rules under the new Tax Cuts and Jobs Act and the five-week government shutdown earlier this year are good enough reasons for granting some extra time to taxpayers this year. Just don’t count on it.

Everyone has things they’d like, but one thing separates those who get them from those who don’t: a financial plan. PNC Investments surveyed its customers to see if they wanted to create a financial plan, says Rich Ramassini, a certified financial planner and senior vice president at PNC Investments. The ones who did had two

Your greatest asset when applying for a job might be your social savvy. Four out of 5 employers polled by CareerBuilder say that soft skills, including communication abilities and critical thinking, are equal to or more important than hard skills — or specific technical abilities — when they’re hiring candidates. The employment website polled 1,021

The alleged college admissions cheating scam unveiled earlier this week has already triggered at least one call to change the law regarding some donations. Sen. Ron Wyden, D-Ore., said Wednesday that he will introduce a bill stripping tax benefits for donations made to universities and colleges before or during the enrollment of children of the

Senate Republicans are pushing a new way for families to access paid leave when they have a child. But in order to take time off, parents must be willing to take their Social Security retirement benefits a little later. Sens. Joni Ernst (R-Iowa) and Mike Lee (R-Utah) unveiled the plan, called the CRADLE Act, on

While the pace of climate change is a matter of some debate, most would argue that our path of travel is not. We are headed toward a hotter, drier world, with more frequent extreme weather events. The impacts will extend to all facets of life, including investment management. The National Climate Assessment, released in late

President Donald Trump’s proposed budget might make it easier for seniors to save for health-care costs on a tax-free basis. The proposal calls for allowing Medicare beneficiaries to make tax-deductible contributions to health savings accounts “associated with high-deductible health plans offered by their employers or a Medicare Advantage plan.” That’s a change from current law,

Everyone is always telling you to simplify this, simplify that. Your closet. Your workout routine. Your financial life. Great advice, but how do you actually do that? One thing to do is cut through the noise. And few things are more blaringly confusing than looking at a line-up of investments when you open an individual

Retirees with high prescription drug costs might want to keep an eye on President Trump’s hoped-for changes to Medicare. The president’s proposed 2020 budget, released Monday, calls for allowing Medicare to negotiate lower prices with pharmaceutical companies and would cap how much beneficiaries pay out-of-pocket under Part D prescription drug coverage, among other provisions. Yet

Owe Uncle Sam on taxes? Paying with your credit card might help you rack up perks — if you do it right. The IRS takes checks and electronic fund transfers. The agency will also let you pay with plastic for a fee through a payment processing company. Be aware that in general, paying your taxes

If you are job hunting this year, you could be in luck. The unemployment rate is at 3.8 percent while the number of Americans filing applications for jobless benefits fell this past week. Forty percent of employers said they plan to hire full-time, permanent employees in 2019, according to CareerBuilder’s annual study on the state

For an estimated 2 million people every year, the title to their car becomes a pawn in their bid to stay financially afloat — a move that doesn’t always work out. As the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau sorts through public input on its proposal to relax its pending so-called payday-loan rule, which covers auto-title loans,

The nation’s high school students are well aware that it’s never been harder to get into a top college. Just last year, Yale’s acceptance rate hit 6.31 percent, near an all-time low. Princeton offered admission to just 5.5 percent of a record 35,370 applicants and at Harvard, the admission rate fell below 5 percent for

With tax season halfway behind us, refunds are edging up slightly from where they were a year ago. The average check from the IRS hit $3,068 for the week of March 1, up 0.7 percent from this time last year, according to data from the tax authority. It’s a different story from where things were

From the first day he became a pro ball player, Major League Baseball All-Star Mark Teixeira knew he had to be smart about his money. Luckily, he had great mentors, like his father. “The first thing that my Dad said was, ‘hey let me show you what a spreadsheet looks like … let me show

You probably know by now that charitable deductions are tax-deductible. But how about the cost of caring for your pet? Or your kid’s clarinet lessons? In select cases, the IRS has permitted taxpayers to deduct off-beat expenses on their tax returns. Here’s the key: Those costs must meet certain conditions; they can’t just be personal

Forget student loans. Insufficient income is the No. 1 hurdle keeping many people from buying a home. More than half of the participants in a survey by Bankrate.com cited inadequate income as a barrier to homeownership. The personal finance site polled 2,668 adults between Jan. 30 and Feb. 1. In fact, when it comes to

The U.S. is finally embracing contactless payments, which will likely accelerate the move away from cash in favor of credit, debit and mobile wallets. And it’s largely thanks to hurried commuters. As soon as this spring, New York City subways and buses will enable riders to tap a contactless bank card or their mobile wallet

Whether people are investing their tax refunds or using them to pay bills, one thing is clear: They’re stretching their cash through the remainder of the year. Six months after receiving a check from Uncle Sam, families still managed to have an average of 28 percent of their tax refund remaining, according to a data

If there’s a single financial task that seems like it can be put off indefinitely, it’s the emergency stash. Today, your car is fine, your pets are healthy, the sun is shining. Yet life has a way of throwing curveballs when you least expect it, and that’s why everyone needs an emergency cushion to soften

If you’ve already turned 65 and are getting close to saying goodbye to full-time work, make sure Medicare is on your must-tend-to checklist. While it’s common for people working past that age to stick with a company-sponsored health plan and delay enrolling in Medicare, impending retirement means you should be planning ahead to avoid a

It’s as important as the college acceptance letter but rarely as black and white. A school’s financial aid offer typically maps out your expected family contribution and what scholarships or need-based aid you qualify for, not only in the first year but throughout your college career. Financially, a lot is at stake. With prices steadily

If you’re not comparison shopping when looking for a home loan, you’re probably losing money when you take out a new mortgage. Half of home buyers look to only one lender when buying a home, according to a survey from NerdWallet. And that is a mistake, according to the personal finance website. If you compare

It’s hard to not get excited about receiving a tax refund. For many Americans, that annual check from Uncle Sam offers a rare opportunity to better their financial footing, and fewer adults these days want to blow it on an excursion or new iPhone. On average, taxpayers expect to receive $3,030 back from the IRS,

Many people don’t even know how long they’ve been in credit card debt. Recent research from CreditCards.com found that 7 percent of plastic holders don’t remember how many years they’ve been carrying a balance, while more than half say it has been more than a year that they’ve done so. When you carry a balance

If you’re able to work remotely, or have been itching to move elsewhere, it makes sense to consider locations where your money will go far. Or further than other places. When you account for inflation, the median household income in the United States has barely budged over the last 20 years. Today it stands at